Kerman Zand
In the short story A Ring O' Roses, Kerman Zand was a member of Icarus Aviation, a private flying club at Garfold in Essex. Biggles first met Zand at the club while there on a routine inspection tour. Zand had just landed from Paris in a French built Coursier touring aircraft and had performed a falling leaf manoeuvre during its final approach to land. This struck Biggles as nothing more than the pilot wanting to show off his skills to spectators. According to Clinton, Zand had learnt to fly at Garfold about two years before. Besides being a born pilot, he was also the most popular member of the club, probably because he frequently bought drinks all round at the bar. Zand was from the old Persian nobility and was extremely wealthy. He worked for his father's cosmetics firm, Zand Cosmetics Ltd, based at Zand House, Regent's Park which was also his family residence. In his capacity as his father's overseas agent, Zand made frequent flights to the continent, to the cities where his father's firm had branches, namely, Paris, Brussels, Milan and Geneva. Biggles became suspicious of Zand when, among other things, he heard that Zand had recently asked for a small 5-gallon tank to be fitted to his aircraft. Acting on these suspicions, Biggles radioed Ginger and asked him to observe Zand as he arrived in his green Jaguar at his residence at Regent's Park. Ginger noticed that Zand, on arriving at his house, took two two-gallon petrol cans from the car into the house. To Biggles, Zand's actions did not add up. The standard range of the Coursier was more than adequate for all the destinations he flew to. Five more gallons of fuel was too small to make any difference. In any case, Zand's flights always took place on Sundays, arriving home on Monday morning. Yet Sunday was when the branches he was visiting on the continent would have been closed. Finally, people did not normally bring cans of petrol into their houses. Biggles sent Ginger down to Garfold to conduct discreet surveillance on Zand the following Monday. Ginger observed that Zand, after landing, opened a secret pocket in the fur collar of his jacket and removed six small glass phials. The spare petrol tank also had a strange smell--that of a volatile spirit that was neither fuel, nor perfume nor any alcoholic beverage. The third Monday, Biggles and Ginger planned an ambush for Zand at Garfold. Zand, angry at being caught red-handed, drew a knife and attempted to stab Biggles but was tripped by Ginger and arrested. It turned out that the spare tank contained highly refined absolute alcohol and the glass phials attar of roses, an essential oil distilled from rose petals. Both were ingredients used in the manufacture of the flagship product of Zand Cosmetics, an exclusive and expensive perfume called Rose Luna. According to Zand, each phial of essential oil was worth more than two hundred pounds. He smuggled the oil and alcohol in because the duties would have been too high. At the conclusion of the case, Zand was sent to prison with the rest of the directors of the firm. Category:Biggles characters Category:People Category:Air Police era characters